The present invention generally relates to footwear, in particular, to athletic shoes that include an adjustable sizing system.
Consumers purchase shoes and other footwear for use in athletic activities such as running, cross training, soccer, football, baseball, tennis, walking, and the like. In recent years, sports directed to children have been very popular. In order for these children to compete effectively and to reduce immediate and future podiatric problems, it is essential that they wear shoes that are sized properly.
As children grow, consumers purchase numerous pairs of athletic shoes of increasing sizes to maintain the pace of the child""s growth. In general, the feet of children grow quickly during the younger years and decelerate as the children reach maturity. Many parents have purchased shoes for their children only to be dismayed that the child has grown out of the shoes before the shoes have been barely worn. This problem is magnified for certain shoes made for specific seasonal sports where the wearable season is short. To avoid the cost of replacing shoes on a frequent basis, some parents might purchase shoes in larger sizes in an effort to preempt the growth of the feet. Alternatively or additionally, some parents may have their children wear the shoes even when the child has slightly outgrown them. Neither of these practices are desired because the shoes will not likely fit properly for the wearer. Improper or poorly fitting footwear may effect the athletic performance of the child or could aggravate medical problems associated with the foot.
In general, most children""s feet grow approximately one full shoe size in a year, or one-half shoe size about every four months to six months. Consequently, the shoes need to be purchased frequently to accommodate the growing child. The feet of children may grow about one-third inch or more in length within a year. For families on limited budgets, the additional costs may create problems or cause the parents to forego the athletic activity. Some parents may forego purchasing new shoes and keep the poor-fitting shoes on the children. Unfortunately, this unintended problem may lead to effecting the proper growth and development of the feet of the children or could for cause future medical problems. Thus, it is advantageous to extend the life of footwear to reduce the number of frequent purchases. Also it is advantageous to provide footwear that fits properly for the wearer for as long as possible.
The American standard sizing system has various size designations such as 6, 6xc2xd, and 7. Other standard world-wide footwear sizing systems such as the English, European, and metric use similar type sizing arrangements. Under the American standard designation system, 6 and 6xc2xd, and 6xc2xd and 7 are considered to be adjacent sizes in the sizing system. These adjacent sizes are also considered to have half-size length differentials while 6 and 7 would be considered as having a full size length differential. The size ranges and designation vary between women, men, girl, boy, and infant footwear. In general, footwear manufacturers provide the shoes in most sizes for each half size length differentials to accommodate the consumer""s demand for shoes that properly conform to the feet of the wearer. This is a special consideration when supplying shoes to children. Manufacturing shoes for each half size can be expensive causing manufacturers to incur additional tooling and setup costs. The additional cost increases through the entire production, distribution, and retail supply channels. In addition, the intermediate sized shoes may increase inventory and carrying costs of the distributor and thus, may also increase the cost to the ultimate consumer who uses the shoes. Thus it is advantageous to reduce the number of differing sized shoes in a product line to reduce the cost of shoes, for the consumer and the manufacturer, if it could be accomplished without sacrificing the consumer""s demand for properly fitting shoes.
One solution has been proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/640,371 filed Aug. 17, 2000 to Bradley Long, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,874 which is herein fully incorporated by reference. In an embodiment, the Long application discloses a single adjustable sizing member for an athletic shoe in which the sizing member is attached to the upper at the rear end of the athletic shoe. While the sizing member of Long is effective, improvements can be provided to benefit the wearer of a shoe. In addition, foot movements of which occur in some sports can be addressed to improve enhanced athletic performance.
Heretofore, shoe sizing systems have not adequately, if at all, addressed the demands and biomechanical considerations of the sports as they relate for the performance of athletes. This problem is magnified for growing children commonly who use shoes in the cleated athletic shoe category, such as soccer shoes. Motions prevalent in the sport of soccer, such as side-to-side cutting motions and kicking motions for a ball, may create foot instability leading to fatigue, injury, and inefficiency of footwork action.
By way of example, the foot may experience relatively high impact forces during foot planting movements for ball kicking and/or changing directions. This is a special consideration on artificial surfaces. While artificial surface help make the competition fast paced, artificial surface are generally harder than grass surfaces. Because the artificial surfaces do not absorb impact like grass surfaces, playing on artificial surfaces increases the risk injuries to the lower extremities of the child""s body. Past sizing systems for shoes are not adequately, if at all, designed for the dynamics of running and changing direction on such turf conditions to alleviate the risks of injury.
The significant interaction of forces on the shoe may cause the heel portion of the upper to flex or rollover in a medial-to-lateral motion or lateral-to-medial motion, depending on the foot strike action. This rollover motion undesirably makes the foot lose mating contact with the upper, particularly in the heel and heel tendon. Consequently, the shoe may lose some traction, and the athlete may be left in an awkward position following the planting movement, which can adversely affect the passing and shooting performance of the soccer athlete. Furthermore, making contact on a firmly planted ankle with ill-fitting shoes may forcibly cause joint and ligament damage in the foot resulting in an increase likelihood of a sprain. Additionally or alternatively, past sizing systems have not addressed fit of the shoe for cutting or side-to-side motions for these types of foot movement. These side-to-side motions can interact to apply oblique forces to various portions of the foot, which can lead to injury, fatigue, and footwork inefficiency. Hence, an article of footwear with a sizing system for use in the sport of soccer and other similar sports that maximizes performance was needed.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention pertains to an article of footwear that includes a sizing system to permit the shoe size to be selectively adjustable by the wearer. In an aspect, sizing system permits shoe size adjustment and enhances fit and biomechanical performance of wearer.
In one aspect of the present invention, an article of footwear in the form of a shoe includes a sole, an upper extending from the sole, and a sizing apparatus. The upper has front and rear portions, and a foot opening at the rear portion. The foot opening is positioned to receive a foot of a wearer when the shoe is worn. A sizing apparatus provides the ability to extend the useful life of an athletic shoe for a particular wearer an athletic shoe beyond a conventional intermediate sized shoe and a full shoe size. Further, the sizing apparatus improves the fit of the shoe to prevent heel rollover and compensate for side-to-side foot action.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a sizing apparatus is positionable within a heel portion for engaging a foot of a user. The sizing apparatus includes a first removable member and a second removable member in which the first removable member and second removable member are adapted to be in vertical superimposition with respect to each other and to a heel section of the upper. The first removable member is adapted to be attached to a portion of the heel portion of the upper, and the second removable member is adapted to be substantially pivotally attached to the first removable member. In this manner, selective size adjustment is provided to the wearer. Furthermore, the shoe has selective adjustment for different fit characteristics for the sport of use to improve athletic performance.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an article of footwear includes a sizing apparatus with a first sizing member and a second sizing member. At least one of the sizing members is provided with a composite inner core composed of resilient materials with different resilient properties. The composite inner core may be substantially enclosed between a front cover and a rear cover of at least one of the sizing members. In this manner, the force acting on the heel can be diminished and rollover can be substantially reduced.
According to another aspect of the invention, an articulated sizing system is configured for engaging a foot of a user within a heel portion of an upper. The sizing system includes a first sizing element and a second sizing element coupleable together to adjust a first effective length of the upper, and a second sizing element or the first sizing element configurable to adjust a second effective length of the upper, and the first sizing element or the second sizing element are removably attached to the upper so as to configure the sizing system to adjust a third effective length of the upper.
These and other aspect, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description thereof, presented in connection with the following drawings, which are included by way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard to the claimed invention in which like reference numerals identifying the elements throughout.